demo

For two days at the Demo Spring conference here, just about every presentation hit on the idea of social interaction, either directly, or indirectly. It almost seems that unless a company's product had a serious social element to it, Demo wouldn't consider opening up a speaking slot.

The confab gives young companies six minutes to make their spiel. In a landscape brimming with such shows, is Demo still worth the admission fee?

At Demo Spring, a 'social' tsunami At this week's tech showcase, products, services, and apps built around connecting people are dominating at perhaps an unprecedented level. (Posted in Geek Gestalt by Daniel Terdiman) March 2, 2011 4:00 AM PST

Today on preGame we demo just a fraction of what there is to experience in the epic sequel from BioWare, Dragon Age II! Tune in to see how the improved combat system plays, and check out the advanced automation features that are available.

But first, we'll talk about last week's Nintendo 3DS sell-out debut in Japan and whether we think the 3D portable system will have similar success here in the States. Also, we'll try and make sense of the European PS3 seizing that has begun because of a patent infringement claim filed by LG.

PALM DESERT, Calif.--Since the beginning of time, or at least since the beginning of the Web, we've all used Web sites in solitude, regardless of how many social tools were available.

But thanks to an application called Marginize, that dynamic may soon change. At the Demo Spring conference here today, Marginize talked about how, for what may well be the first time, social and collaborative Web browsing is finally here.

The idea is actually quite simple. Using either a browser add-on--for Firefox, Chrome, or Safari--or a native application on sites whose publishers have opted-in, Web surfers can now … Read more

PALM DESERT, Calif.--It seems like a no-brainer, but why don't the thousands and thousands of online clothing retailers offer customers a way to stand in front of a Webcam and virtually try things on?

That's a question a couple of companies that presented at the Demo Spring 2011 conference here today were trying to answer. Both Zugara and FaceCake Marketing Technologies showed the audience here forthcoming offerings that would integrate virtual dressing rooms into e-tailers' sites.

Although Demo often showcases companies with related technologies, I don't recall a time in my many years of attending this … Read more

PALM DESERT, Calif.--If you're going to spend the cash to charter a private jet, shouldn't it be easy to book the plane?

You would think the industry would simplify things for the wealthy, but that's not the case, according to start-up FlyRuby, which unveiled its service at the Demo Spring conference here today. Indeed, company CEO Michael Leek says that it can often take hours to figure out a suitable private plane charter between two cities. And that's just not efficient.

That's where FlyRuby comes in, Leek said. A former U.S. Marine with … Read more

Rob Glaser, the founder of Real Networks, is launching SocialEyes at the Demo conference today. It's a new video-calling service that blends Skype and FaceTime features with Facebook's social graph.

On the surface, it seems like just another video-calling service, but its social architecture is unique.

Glaser says, "This is not Skype or YouTube or Facebook." So I asked him, "What is it?" Oddly, he shrugged and said, "We're going to find out." Normally I'd say that not knowing how your product is going to be adopted is a negative … Read more

PALM DESERT, Calif.--In 2008, when TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington told CNET that the venerable Demo conference "needs to die," he ushered in an era of extreme competitiveness in the tech start-up-oriented conference world.

Arrington issued his sinister words as part of a conversation about why he had scheduled his own conference--the TechCrunch 50--directly against Demo that year, and his general argument was that shows that charged well into five-figures to let start-ups present their wares to investors and press needed to be dispensed with.

Flash forward three years later, and the TechCrunch 50, or TC 50 as … Read more

In a world of cloud-based applications and media, it seems very 20th century that it's been difficult to stream movies and TV shows from collections on our home computers or media servers to mobile devices like iPads and iPhones.

But a new product called JetStream HD is aiming to change that dynamic. Launching at Demo Spring 2011 in Palm Desert, Calif., this week, JetStream HD combines hardware and software to serve up your personal media to an iPad, and in the near future to other devices like iPhones and iPod Touches, and possibly Android tablets.

As more and more applications move to the cloud, our hard drives are falling by the wayside. And that's probably a good thing. But in the process, we're no longer able to easily manage all of our content. And that's a problem.

At least, that's the position of Primadesk, a start-up that is unveiling its new offering at Demo Spring in Palm Desert, Calif., this week. And the company thinks it has a solution: its Primadesk app aims to give us back our control over all our content, even if it's stored in a wide … Read more